What is Mysteries of Bermuda Triangle

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What is the Bermuda Triangle?

The Bermuda Triangle is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean in which ships, planes, and people are alleged to have mysteriously vanished. Kolkata FF Fatafat Result Today Live

For decades, the Atlantic Ocean’s fabled Bermuda Triangle has captured the human imagination with unexplained disappearances of ships, planes, and people. The legend of the Bermuda Triangle will be forever tied to the fateful flight that took place on December 5, 1945.

Flight 19 originated at the U. S. Naval Air Station in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Five TBM Avenger Torpedo Bombers carrying 14 men took off at roughly 2:10 in the afternoon that day on a routine navigational training mission.

Numerous ships and planes have vanished without a trace within the imaginary Bermuda Triangle bounded by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. Yet 58 years after five Navy planes disappeared there on a routine training mission, no one knows exactly what caused that and other disappearances.BYHILLARY MAYELLPUBLISHED DECEMBER 15, 20037 MIN READ

On a sunny day 58 years ago, five Navy planes took off from their base in Florida on a routine training mission, known as Flight 19. Neither the planes nor the crew were ever seen again. Thus was a legend born. The Bermuda Triangle is an area roughly bounded by Miami, Bermuda, and Puerto Rico. No one keeps statistics, but in the last century, numerous ships and planes have simply vanished without a trace within the imaginary triangle.

Unusual features of the area had been noted in the past. Christopher Columbus wrote in his log about bizarre compass bearings in the area. But the region didn’t get its name until August 1964, when Vincent Gaddis coined the term Bermuda Triangle in a cover story for Argosy magazine about the disappearance of Flight 19. The article stimulated a virtual cottage industry in myth-making. Many exotic theories have been propounded to explain what happened to the missing travelers.

The disappearances have been attributed to the machinations of enormous sea monsters, giant squid, or extra-terrestrials. Alien abductions, the existence of a mysterious third dimension created by unknown beings, and ocean flatulence—the ocean suddenly spewing great quantities of trapped methane—have all been suggested as culprits.

The reality, say many, is far more prosaic. They argue that a sometimes treacherous Mother Nature, human error, shoddy craftsmanship or design, and just plain bad luck can explain the many disappearances.

“The region is highly traveled and has been a busy crossroads since the early days of European exploration,” said John Reilly, a historian with the U.S. Naval Historical Foundation. “To say quite a few ships and airplanes have gone down there is like saying there are an awful lot of car accidents on the New Jersey Turnpike—surprise, surprise.”

Lieutenant A. L. Russell, in the U.S. Coast Guard’s official response to Bermuda Triangle inquiries, writes: “It has been our experience that the combined forces of nature and the unpredictability of mankind outdo science-fiction stories many times each year.”

Some speculate that unknown and mysterious forces account for the unexplained disappearances, such as extraterrestrials capturing humans for study; the influence of the lost continent of Atlantis; vortices that suck objects into other dimensions; and other whimsical ideas.  Some explanations are more grounded in science, if not in evidence.  These include oceanic flatulence (methane gas erupting from ocean sediments) and disruptions in geomagnetic lines of flux.

Environmental considerations could explain many, if not most, of the disappearances.  The majority of Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes pass through the Bermuda Triangle, and in the days prior to improved weather forecasting, these dangerous storms claimed many ships.  Also, the Gulf Stream can cause rapid, sometimes violent, changes in weather. Additionally, the large number of islands in the Caribbean Sea creates many areas of shallow water that can be treacherous to ship navigation. And there is some evidence to suggest that the Bermuda Triangle is a place where a “magnetic” compass sometimes points towards “true” north, as opposed to “magnetic” north. 

The U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard contend that there are no supernatural explanations for disasters at sea.  Their experience suggests that the combined forces of nature and human fallibility outdo even the most incredulous science fiction. They add that no official maps exist that delineate the boundaries of the Bermuda Triangle. The U. S. Board of Geographic Names does not recognize the Bermuda Triangle as an official name and does not maintain an official file on the area.

The ocean has always been a mysterious place to humans, and when foul weather or poor navigation is involved, it can be a very deadly place.  This is true all over the world.  There is no evidence that mysterious disappearances occur with any greater frequency in the Bermuda Triangle than in any other large, well-traveled area of the ocean.

Definition of Bermuda Triangle?

The Bermuda Triangle, as it’s most commonly defined, stretches between Miami, San Juan, Puerto Rico and the island of Bermuda. In all, it encompasses hundreds of thousands of square miles in the North Atlantic Ocean, a huge area. The region also sees heavy traffic from ships coming and going from the East Coast and Gulf of Mexico.

The Bermuda Triangle got its name from a 1964 article in the pulp magazine Argosy, which linked together a few disappearances in the region. “The Deadly Bermuda Triangle” didn’t offer up any explanations for the occurrences, though it did heavily emphasize the mysterious nature of the area. The article features the disappearance of the U.S.S Cyclops, a Navy supply ship, in 1918, and the loss of a flight of bombers during a practice run in 1945, as well as one of the search and rescue planes sent out after them.

These incidents, and others, have today become part of the lore of the Bermuda Triangle. These stories are often stitched together to hint at something untoward lurking beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. In addition to the supernatural explanations, a number of more realistic explanations for the phenomenon have been put forward throughout the years, ranging from wayward magnetism to dangerous bubbles.

Famous Bermuda Triangle Stories 

1. Mary Celeste

Possibly one of the most mysterious stories of shipwrecks, this ship is a tale of its own. Despite being found adrift in some other location in the Atlantic Ocean, the connection to the Bermuda triangle had been somehow invoked to find an answer to the mystery of its fate.

Discovered on 4th December 1872 with everything right in the place except for the entire crew, the ship was found stranded on the sea days after starting its journey from New York to Genoa, Italy. There were seven crew members and Captain Benjamin Briggs, his wife, and their two-year-old daughter aboard the vessel, loaded with raw alcohol.

But, days after, when a passing British ship called Dei Gratia found Mary Celeste under partial sail in the Atlantic, off the Azores Islands, the ship was unmanned with no crew abroad, and the lifeboat was also missing.

It was also found that nine of the barrels in the cargo were empty, and there was a sword on the deck. No trace of the people abroad the vessel or the missing lifeboat has ever been found. Studies of the ship clearly ruled out the possibility of a pirate attack since everything on this ship, including the barrels of alcohol it was transporting and the crew’s valuable belongings, were intact.

Theories surrounding the mystery of the Mary Celeste also included the chances of a criminal conspiracy, alien abduction, and even an attack by a giant squid. The possibility of a natural disaster was also on the list. Many suggested the role of an undersea earthquake behind the accident, while few proposed an accidental foraying of the vessel into the Bermuda Triangle.

However, as much as these speculations seem reasonable, they clearly don’t fit. After all, why would a perfectly skilled crew on a good weather day, with their ship entirely uncompromised, abandon it and then never surface again?

2. Ellen Austin

It is an unnerving triangle mystery associated with the American white oak schooner Ellen Austin. In 1881, the 210 feet long Ellen Austin was going to New York from London when she stumbled upon a derelict near the Bermuda Triangle. Everything seemed fine with the unidentified schooner drifting just north of the Sargasso Sea, but the missing crew.

Captain Baker of the Ellen Austin asked to observe the derelict for two days to make sure it’s not a trap. After two days with no response from the ship, the captain entered the abandoned vessel with his crew to find the well-packed shipment and no sign of the crew.

To tow it back with Ellen Austin, the captain placed a prize crew on the ship, set to sail together. However, after two days of sail on calm waters, a squall separated the path of the two ships, following which the derelict vanished.

Days after the storm, according to the stories, Captain Baker’s lookout could spot the vessel through his spyglass only to realise the vessel drifting far away aimlessly once again. Finally, after hours of effort, Ellen Austin could catch up with the vessel. But, strangely, no one was on board. However, another version of the story suggests a second attempt by Baker to bring her back to land but ended with the same fate before Ellen Austin before abandoning the cursed vessel.

Other reports suggest that the derelict was once more spotted but this time had a separate crew than the prize crew placed on it by Ellen Austin.

The ship’s disappearance, reappearance, and the prize crew’s absence is an intriguing story. It is more like a secret of the Bermuda triangle, one that has seemingly no chances of being unravelled anytime soon.

3. USS Cyclops

The disappearance of USS Cyclops, one of the Navy’s biggest fuel ships, marks the largest loss of life in the history of the US Navy in a single incident.

In March 1918, this massive ship set out to sail from Brazil to Baltimore through the Bermuda region carrying 10,800 tons of manganese ore with about 309 crew members on board. Setting off on a fairly good day, this ship’s first and only message indicated no sort of troubles.

However, the ship was never heard from again. An entire search of the area was put into action, but nothing was ever found. No remains of the ship or any crew members aboard have ever been found. The captain of the USS Cyclops never sent a distress signal, and no one aboard responded to radio calls from other vessels in the vicinity.

The naval investigators also failed to find a definite cause for its disappearance though there were a number of theories suggesting various reasons.

Due to its mysterious disappearance, Cyclops has become part of the list of more than 100 ships and planes to have vanished under strange circumstances in the Bermuda triangle.

4. Carroll A. Deering

Carroll A. Deering, a five-masted commercial schooner, is one of the most written-about maritime mysteries of the 20th century due to the complete mystery around its abandonment.

On January 31, 1921, Carroll A. Deering was found hard aground on the treacherous rocks of Hatteras Diamond Shoals, North Carolina. There were speculations that the vessel was involved in rum-running.

However, when the investigation team from Barbados reached the vessel after days of effort in the rough sea, what they found was a deserted ship with all crew members missing along with the crew’s personal belongings, ships navigational equipment, logbooks, and life rafts, among others.

Often knows as “Ghost Ship of the Outer Banks”, the disappearance of Carroll A. Deering along with few other vessels during the same time period in the Bermuda triangle area has been valuable information on the mysterious waters, but nothing could bring anyone any closer to solving this mystery.

Reports suggest that as many as nine vessels disappeared during this period from the same region- none of which was ever heard from again.

5. Witchcraft

On December 22, 1967, a cabin cruiser named witchcraft left Miami with her captain Dan Burack and his friend, Father Patrick Horgan.

The two gentlemen’s journey on the 23-foot luxury yacht was to enjoy the wonderful view of Miami’s Christmas lights. However, after reaching just one mile from offshore, the coast guard received a call from the captain stating that his ship had hit something, but there was no substantial damage.

Indicating help to be towed to the shore, the coast guard set off immediately reaching witchcraft in as many as 19 minutes alone but to nothing. The area indicating the ship’s location was completely deserted, with no signs of any ship having been stranded or even present there previously.

What’s most intriguing about this story is that this particular cruiser was virtually unsinkable, not to mention numerous life-saving devices present aboard, including life jackets, lifeboats, flares, distress signal devices etc.

None of them was used, and the ship was gone. The coast guard officials searched hundreds of square miles of the ocean over the next few days but were unsuccessful. Nothing of this ship has been found until this day. The ship is gone and what remains is only the speculation that can be done now.